Subject: Re: Hungry Merlin
Date: Feb 12 09:53:41 1998
From: Jerry Converse - sanjer at televar.com


Hi Libor and Dawn

Thanks so much for this information. That thought crossed my mind, but
then I said--naaaa.

I assume "Taverner" is the title of a book. I will have to check it out.

Thanks again

Jerry and Sandy Converse
Grand Coulee, WA

Libor and Dawn Michalak wrote:
>
> I have in the past (in winter) seen a Merlin cache its food in a tree branch
> crotch. The Merlin stuffed a rodent into a hole in a branch like
> Nuthatches. Merlins have been known to cache their food for lean times. If
> its plentiful and easy to catch they will take it and hide the food in a
> nearby "safe" tree. In Taverner he says that both the male and the female
> cache their food. It doesn't matter what time of year it is either.
> Apparently the food (even after it is eaten partially) is stored for safe
> keeping. In most cases it is the male which brings food to the female. If
> she refuses the prey during the offering he takes it away and caches it.
>
> One record he speaks of is a female that received food from a male. She ate
> part of it and hid the rest. Later that day if he produced no food for her
> she would go back and finish off the prey she stored. They tend to cache
> their food (on average) about 50m from their aerie in breeding season and
> seldom cache food in the same site during the breeding season for fear that
> it will be stolen by Magpies and/or Crows. In winter they tend to reuse the
> same sites.
>
> Libor
>
> \\\--.___ \\\--.___
> \_/ \_/
> \\\--.___ \\\--.___
> \_/ \_/
> " CHARMING"
> pieris at netidea.com
> =====================
> Libor and Dawn Michalak
> Nelson, BC